The Rise of Wild Phoenix

Last night, I hit level 50 on City of Heroes with Wild Phoenix as did Brian’s Black Cniht.

Two things hit me really hard when I hit the top level:

I did not get the same sense of accomplishment I have from other games.

My love for the Character made me start wondering about the current state of intellectual property laws.

Sense of Accomplishment

While I love City of Heroes, my attachment is more to the character than too the game. The amount of detail I was allowed to build into my toon connected me to the imagery and back story I associated with the character separate from the storyline and setting of the game.

At first, I thought this was a byproduct of the games setting. It is not based on any of the major comic series that I was in love with an wanted to explore. I never really fell in love with the setting.

What City of Heroes offers is an elaborate character that is continually customizable. When I reached 50, I did not run around testing my toon, I quit the game to create another character… I am not sure if this is a weakness or strength in the game and only time will tell.

Intellectual Property…

Now the writer in me is faced by with a dilemma. I have fallen in love with character, and am tempted to write about him, but then the question arose: Who Owns the Intellectual Property?

I understand that they would own the exact image of the toon, because they own that IP, but what about the general appearance. Since I chose the colors and general motif so as long as I do not copy the toon, then I should be ok.

What about the powers? I chose the power sets, and in any story, they would not be limited to the set available in the game, but their would be similarities. This is the point that I think is blurriest.

Cryptic would have no rights over the back story I created for the character, it does not tie into their story at all.

I am going to continue by obsession with the character, and may work on it as my NaNo project this year. It just gave me pause and made me think. I am curious if you think I am overly paranoid or if there is actually an issue here.

Charlie Dorsett

My name is Charlie, but if your looking for my work, I go by C. E. Dorsett. I write scifi, fantasy, and a touch of horror. I like to play with gothic, steampunk, decopunk, epic fantasy, and wuxia. I love to tell stories and talk about books, movies, series, and music.

Costumes, Role Playing, and Unity

One of my absolute favorite aspects of fandom is the costuming and roleplaying, and I would have to say they are the two most maligned and stigmatized things that we do. Let's start with the most accepted by the popular culture and proceed to the least understood.

Computer Roleplaying Games

Mass appeal of video games have normalized RPGs on the computer, and why not. Final Fantasy, Mass Effect, and Knights of the Old Republic were all such brilliant games, it is hard to see how they couldn't have had a mass market appeal, but in the one place where Roleplaying should flourish, it is all but extinct.

There was once a type of game known as the Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game (MMORPG). The problem is that these too entered the popular culture, and they spawned a new bane: badge collectors. A sizable number of the MMORPG players became obsessed with their statistics, what badges they earned, and what loot they could get. The software companies saw these players as their core audience and in some cases, there only audience.

The games were increasingly designed for these players and not for the fans of story. Coinidentally, the acronym was shortened from MMORPG to simply MMO. Players have done what they can to keep roleplaying alive, but they are generally isolated to a specific server or guild, and they are not aided by the software designers who more and more are crafting games that challenge your prowess with a keyboard and mouse and don't require any thought whatsoever.

This is one of the reasons I am so excited about Star Wars: The Old Republic and Stargate Worlds. They are trying to bring story into the games and make it front and center. I wish them the best of luck.

Table Top Role Playing Games

Table top RPG fans are the geeks that geeks love to hate. Don't believe me? Listen carefully to a lot of the podcasts out there. It won't take you too long to find people having a geeky conversation about their favorite tech and occationally mocking TTRPG players.

Table Top games are not as easy to play as their computerized bretheren, but they are a lot more fun. There are more requirements to play:

The Rule Books

Friends who have free time to come over

Dice

Creativity

Imagination

I didn't stutter at the end, and no, I am not padding the list. Creativity is the ability to think originally, and imagination is the ability to see with the minds eye events as they are described to you.

I think those last two more than anything else makes people not like tabel top games. Personally, I love them. I run an Earthdawn game at the house every Sunday. Nothing brings friends together for a good time like a shared adventure built from the collective imaginations of everyone there.

Live Action Role Playing

Live Action Role Playing (LARPing) is penultimate expression of role playing. There are numerous systems for LARPing and they all generally involve renting a location, playing in a park, or the storyteller's home. Most LARPers dress up in elaborate costumes and carry props to aid in game play.

I used to play Vampire: The Masquerade both as a table top game and as a LARP, and I have to say, the LARPs were always more fun. We played at local conventions and I ran a chronicle that spanned various players homes, parks, and a few businesses who allowed us to use their establishment.

Who doesn't enjoy getting dressed up and spending a night as someone else?

One aspect of the LARPs I've played that made them so fun was that they were locked to the locations they took place. The story was handled through notes given to the players to explain what happened between sessions, and a couple players who agreed to play according to the scripted motives I provided for them. To this day, some of my favorite memories took place at LARPs.

We were a part of a LARP network where storytellers coordinated large scale events between cities, and at conventions our players would play through pivitol stories. The largest LARP event we threw had 500 players in attendence. 3,00o players made up the network. We coordinated through a email list.

LARPs are emense fun, and I miss them terribly. I had hoped that MMOs would provide a platform for virtual LARPs, but so far, they haven't.

Costuming

Some people just love dressing up. They don't roleplay at all, they just wear the costume for enjoyment. For some, it is an uniform. For others, it is an expression of their identification with the character or race they are recreating. And others do it for the challenge of recreating the costume.

Steampunk is an entire movement built around costuming for the sheer fun of it.

Fans who Play together Stay together

Most of the deep, personal relationships I have developed with fans over the years has been between fans I have roleplayed with. We share an experience that is truly unique to the players who were there. Memories of events that are not replecatable in real life.

All these years later, I still run into people at the conventions who remeber the night my Taleison should have seen his reflection in the mirror and went mad. We talk about it like a moment from a movie or series that we loved, but our connection to the event is so much more personal because we were there when it happened.

So if you haven't before. I hightly recommend to gather up your friends and play a game with them. Feel free to choose the type, but make sure it is one that will build those memories that will last a lifetime.

Star Wars: The Old Republic

LucasArts and BioWare™, a division of Electronic Arts Inc., today announced the development of Star Wars®: The Old Republic™, a story-driven massively multiplayer online PC game set in the timeframe of the Star Wars®: Knights of the Old Republic™ franchise. Star Wars: The Old Republic, being developed and published by BioWare and LucasArts, represents an innovative approach to interactive entertainment, featuring immersive storytelling, dynamic combat and intelligent companion characters (Star Wars: The Old Republic).

It is nearly impossible for me to contain my excitement about this game. I heard the rumors for ages, but I never dared to believe they could possibly come true.

I am not new to Star Wars MMOs. I have been an off and on player of Star Wars Galaxies for years. The love/hate development cycle Sony Online Entertainment has maintained for years has kept me falling in and out of love with the game. I often joked with my friends that a day would come when someone other than SOE would one day make a new game. That day has finally come.

I am not sure I would be as excited as I am if anyone other than Bioware were making the game. Knights of the Old Republic is one of the best games I have ever played, rivaling Final Fantasy VII for the top slot on the list. Add to that their success with Mass Effect, and my hopes are exceedingly high. Now, I will be the first to admit that Knights of the Old Republic II was not the best game and could have used much more time in development before release, but the potential was still there, and even though it was incomplete, it was still enjoyable.

What excites me the most about Bioware making an MMO is that they are masters of story and setting. Two things often missing from most MMOs. Even better is there goals for the game:

"Traditionally, massively multiplayer online games have been about three basic gameplay pillars - combat, exploration and character progression," said Dr. Ray Muzyka, Co-Founder and General Manager/CEO of BioWare and General Manager/Vice President of Electronic Arts Inc., "In Star Wars: The Old Republic, we’re fusing BioWare’s heritage of critically-acclaimed storytelling with the amazing pedigree of Lucasfilm and LucasArts, and adding a brand-new fourth pillar to the equation – story. At the same time, we will still deliver all the fun features and activities that fans have come to expect in a AAA massively multiplayer online game. To top it all off, Star Wars: The Old Republic is set in a very exciting, dynamic period in the Star Wars universe (Star Wars: The Old Republic)."

I have been skeptical about claims like this in the past, but since it is Bioware. They are the one company that have the long track record making brilliantly enthralling role playing games. A track record is of course no guarantee. Square Enix did not do the best job with Final Fantasy XI.

What they are hoping to accomplish is a game with few instances where the choices of the players dictate the events in the setting. Many have tried this in the past, and I have heard good things about Warhammer Online.

Dr. Greg Zeschuk, Co-Founder and Vice President Development Operations, BioWare and Vice President, Electronic Arts Inc. [added], "Star Wars: The Old Republic is set roughly 300 years after the events of Knights of the Old Republic, a timeframe that is completely unexplored in the lore. BioWare has been able to add to the Star Wars history in developing the game’s story and has created an overarching narrative that players can enjoy, regardless of their play style. Our goal is to offer players an emotionally rewarding experience that combines the traditional elements of MMO gameplay with innovations in story and character development (Star Wars: The Old Republic)."

This is the dream, whether or not it can become a reality will have to wait to be seen. They have only a released a few hints at what they are working on.

1) The lightsabers in the screenshots will shrink – but not by much.

2) They really, really, really mean it when they say that there is story in this game and it is what sets Old Republic apart from every MMO out there.

3) You don’t pick good or evil right off the bat

4) There will be crafting, there will probably be guilds, there will definitely be PvP and there won’t be a whole lot of instancing

Yes, you will be able to travel to many of the planets featured in the Star Wars movies and in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. There will also be a number of new planets and star systems to explore (SWTOR FAQ).

There are many questions that need answering:

What races will be available for play?

How many factions will be represented in the game? Republic? Jedi? Sith? Hutt?

Play This Game, Buy This Book

I know it is becoming popular to give extras to people to entice them into reading your book, but I have to think that this is a bit over the top:

When PJ Haarsma wrote his first book, a science fiction novel for preteenagers, he didn’t think just about how to describe Orbis, the planetary system where the story takes place. He also thought about how it should look and feel in a video game (NYTimes).

I realize that games are very popular, but the margins on print fiction are very slim. If you had to figure in the cost of game development into the price of publications, books, which already cost too much for the average person, will become even more expensive.

New writers will be left out of this model completely and their books will remain unread or popular in the limited spheres they are already confined to.

Five Reasons Why Game Tie-in for Novels is a Bad Idea

Too many books are published every day.

The quality of the book will be prejudged by the quality of the game, adding too much to the production costs.

If more people opt in, this will be like the book trailer fad and these games will be quickly ignored.

The audience for games and book are not necessarily the same.

The writer now has two products to market instead of just one

Five Reasons Why Game Tie-ins for Novels could be a Good Idea

Many science fiction/fantasy settings would be fun to play as an MMO or other type of roleplaying game.

The identification of a player to their character could foster an identification with the setting, and then the books.

A Game could provide the writer with an good avenue to fill in back story that does not fit easily into the narrative of their book.

The reader would be able to visualize the world as the writer does because of the game visuals

The writer has a playground to test ideas with their audience.

For any of these advantages to be realized, the cost would be more than any publisher could justify.

I don't believe that simple, web-based flash games would be able to offer enough of an immersive experience to convert into a sale of the book.

If we dance off with the magical fairies into a utopian dream world where this could be done on such a mass scale it would be feasible, there would be a few minimal requirements.

Dream Wish List to Make this Possible.

A basic MMO/Roleplaying framework with predefined physics and game mechanics that is cheap to license, alter, operate, and distribute.

Character, terrain, and mission builders that are easy enough to use that interested writers can create their own games without the expense of hiring a development team.

A central service with a good interface and rating system that will allow users to switch between games without having to pay extra for the new game (in the case of MMOs), or a good demo service that will easily make expansions available to players (in the case of stand alone rpgs/rts).

Right now, the only place I have seen that comes anywhere close to this level of functionality is Multiverse, who are currently developing the Buffy MMO, but their software would still require a development team to create the terrains and characters.

I would love to see my settings given this treatment, and I am not against the idea, but the financial hurdles that still have to be over come are too high.

What do you think? Do you know of a service that offers these features? If so I would love to know.

In-Game Ads in City of Heroes

Hmmm, how should I take this?

Double Fusion will provide the technology and sales force to bring brands into the popular online role-playing game which takes place in a modern urban setting, an ideal environment for unobtrusive in-game advertising (Double Fusion).

Well, there are billboards in the game already with fake ads for companies in Paragon City, so they are not adding them in... at least for now, the program is opt-in... and well this will keep me from having to pay more to play the game...

I am really mixed on this. My business side loves this idea. I would love to advertise my books, blog and podcasts to the players of City of Heroes. My player side is ambiguous because I barely notice the fake ads in the game now, so I am not sure that the ads will bother me at all.

If only this were the path to lower fees, but it is not. The goal is to add revenue so they can double their dev team. I am not at all sure that this is a good idea because I don't know how many players will notice the ads, and if they are made noticeable it will detract from the experience of the game.

The Rise of Wild Phoenix

Last night, I hit level 50 on City of Heroes with Wild Phoenix as did Brian’s Black Cniht.

Two things hit me really hard when I hit the top level:

I did not get the same sense of accomplishment I have from other games.

My love for the Character made me start wondering about the current state of intellectual property laws.

Sense of Accomplishment

While I love City of Heroes, my attachment is more to the character than too the game. The amount of detail I was allowed to build into my toon connected me to the imagery and back story I associated with the character separate from the storyline and setting of the game.

At first, I thought this was a byproduct of the games setting. It is not based on any of the major comic series that I was in love with an wanted to explore. I never really fell in love with the setting.

What City of Heroes offers is an elaborate character that is continually customizable. When I reached 50, I did not run around testing my toon, I quit the game to create another character… I am not sure if this is a weakness or strength in the game and only time will tell.

Intellectual Property…

Now the writer in me is faced by with a dilemma. I have fallen in love with character, and am tempted to write about him, but then the question arose: Who Owns the Intellectual Property?

I understand that they would own the exact image of the toon, because they own that IP, but what about the general appearance. Since I chose the colors and general motif so as long as I do not copy the toon, then I should be ok.

What about the powers? I chose the power sets, and in any story, they would not be limited to the set available in the game, but their would be similarities. This is the point that I think is blurriest.

Cryptic would have no rights over the back story I created for the character, it does not tie into their story at all.

I am going to continue by obsession with the character, and may work on it as my NaNo project this year. It just gave me pause and made me think. I am curious if you think I am overly paranoid or if there is actually an issue here.